Garment hangers are well known especially those for mounting and/or storing a jacket and a related garment such as a men's suit including a jacket and trousers. Such hangers may also be used to support women's garments such as a jacket or a dress and a related companion garment such as a skirt or slacks. Regardless of what is supported in the hanger, it is usually mounted on a hanger support element such as a rod in a closet or the like and is normally disposed transversely or at right angles to the rod.
The hanger itself typically includes a hook to hang the hanger, arms to support a jacket or other garment placed thereon. Vertically below the hook and interconnected to the hanger arms is a rod on which another garment may be placed, for example, trousers or slacks or skirt. In the normal use of this type of garment hanger, the garment to be placed on the rod is positioned and the jacket is then placed on the hanger over the first garment, or the order is reversed. Placing the jacket on the hanger arms and then placing the other garment on the rod normally requires that the jacket be opened or removed to gain access to the rod.
In any event, the result is that the garment on the rod is positioned within the jacket located on the hanger arms and basically supported on the rod between the front and back of the jacket and basically covered by the jacket. Since the garment on the rod may not be matched to the jacket, i.e., a sports coat and trousers, or woman's jacket and slacks, as contrasted in each case to a matching suit, it is sometimes necessary to remove the trousers or the like while leaving the jacket on the hanger. This may be accomplished a number of ways, but in each case, the jacket has to be moved, i.e., the front of the jacket has to be opened to access the garment on the rod. While not always the case, more often than not, the jacket is not thereafter hung correctly on the hanger with the result that the jacket becomes wrinkled.
In other cases, a jacket may be on the hanger arms and one may desire to place another garment on the hanger rod, i.e., trousers or slacks and the like. In this case, again the jacket must be moved to access the rod. However, there is the added problem of assuring that the other garment, slacks to trousers, for example, is correctly supported on the rod to avoid wrinkling of the other garment. It is not uncommon for the jacket to be disturbed to hang another garment on the hanger rod, with the result that both the jacket and the other garment are incorrectly hung and become wrinkled.
To some extent, the converse is also true, i.e., when placing a jacket on or removing a jacket from a hanger on which a garment is supported on the hanger arm, one may displace the garment on the rod because it necessary to open and remove the jacket or open and place the jacket over the hanger arms.
It is also the case that the hanger must be properly supported on the supporting rod or other support member so as to avoid wrinkling of the garments on the hanger. Typically, since the garment on the hanger arms and that on the hanger rod are essentially in the same vertical alignment, there is no major problem. Further, the hanger hook normally is in the same vertical alignment as the hanger arms so that the hanger hook, hanger arms and hanger rod are all in essentially the same vertical plane. Thus, if the hanger and the garments are supported thereon are correctly positioned, wrinkling of the garments is normally avoided. However, the problem still exists with respect to hanging garments on such hangers or removing them where only one of the two garment is hung or removed.
It is apparent that a need exists for a garment hanger which permits easy access to a hanger rod, without disturbing the garment on the hanger arms, so that garments may be placed on or removed from the hanger rod easily and conveniently.
It is also apparent that a need exists for a clothes hanger which is easy to use, reliable, relatively inexpensive and which will assure that garments to be placed on or to be removed from the hanger are easily accessible while reducing the risk of causing one garment to be incorrectly supported by placing or removing another garment from the hanger.
It is also the case that there is a need for an improved garment hanger which permits relatively easy access to the garments, while minimizing the possibility of causing wrinkling of the garments.